Golf courses, whether long-play or miniature in configuration, have proven to be extremely popular. The competitiveness and skill required for long-play types has brought many individuals, both amateurs and professionals, to the ranks of players seeking to lower their handicaps. There exist world-renowned courses for tournament play, exhibiting not only great difficulty in actual course structure, but also notable aesthetic beauty with carefully landscaped designs. Miniature golf has proven to be an enjoyable recreation, as well, drawing numbers of players due to the typically quick and low-intensity activity involved, as well as certain locations with their own fanciful designs incorporated therein, too.
In either type of activity, there has existed a general limitation, in most situations, as to the timeframe such courses are open for play. Certainly, with low light exposure there exists great difficulty for participants to actually follow and find their struck golf balls in such situations. Photoluminescent golf balls have been employed in the past to facilitate such locating needs, particularly when the light conditions are an obstacle for such an activity, and, furthermore, when typical golf balls that have been launched off of a fairway and/or green. Many golfers have searched for such items in the rough and other locations only to find another player's ball, rather than his or her own. Other than providing static colorations (other than white) for such gold balls, the most reliable way to differentiate such golf implements is through the above-noted photoluminescence alternative. Such lighted balls thus may be provided with standard yellow, orange, or white colors for such locating purposes, or, if desired, any other type of color, specifically in a well-lit manner to facilitate locating in low-light conditions. Such previously provided golf balls, however, typically include spring-activated switches that permit activation of the luminescent devices therein upon contact with a golf club. Once struck, the lights turn on and the player can easily follow the path of the ball. Such spring-activated types, though, are limited in terms of duration of such photo luminescent results as the internal light devices, such as light emitting diode (LED) structures, are powered by temporary energy sources. The eight or so minute time length of such lit golf balls thus is noticeably short, particularly as it relates to typical timeframes between striking and finding such items during a golf round. Also, in dark conditions, the ability to activate such golf balls upon contact with a club limits the beneficial nature provided by such implements. In particular, under low light, the duffer may have difficulty viewing such a ball prior to and during a striking action. With spring-activated devices, then, the necessity for contact prior to turning on drastically limits the capability of the player to utilize such a golf ball under low-light conditions. Thus, the limited time frame coupled with the need for spring activation for photoluminescent results have proven deficient. With the need for, for example, hard surfaces for reactivation after such lighted golf balls turn off, golf courses do not usually accord the user appropriate capabilities for such purposes. The striking with a club, again, may be the only available possibility in such a milieu, thus limiting the overall effectiveness of such implements.
Improvements have been suggested, including the utilization of radio frequency tags and transmitters and receivers within and/or on such golf balls. Such devices permit a player to activate the light components externally with the utilization of a transmitter. This possible improvement, though, is susceptible to certain problems, particularly in relation to the stability of the transmitter/receiver device itself, particularly during a golf club strike (and certainly in relation to continuous activities in this nature). Additionally, the reliability of a transmitter over time to function properly with such a specific receiver may be compromised, not only due to repetitive striking activities, but in relation to the number of balls involved. With multiple golf balls typically in use during a round, a multi-signal transmitter would be necessary or such a single-signal type would activate each ball in the player's possession. Also, the ability to center a signal solely to a player's own golf ball may be a problem if the transmitter involved is set to a frequency that communicates with not only those in his or her possession, but other players' as well. The ability to control not only the time and duration of activation of such photo luminescent golf balls, with implanted devices that do not deleteriously effect the actual capability of such implements for utilization in such a capacity, and thus do not cause unevenness or other type of possible problems therein, is thus still of significant desire within this industry. The state of the art in this area is noticeably deficient, whether in terms of actual activation limitations and time duration of photo luminescent results, or in terms of providing reliable and centered control of light operations over time. The following inventive golf ball structures provide the industry with such desirable implements.